Zim's Silent, Selective
Starvation
International Crisis Group
(Brussels)
PRESS RELEASE
August 29, 2002
Posted to the web August
29, 2002
The ZANU-PF government of President Robert Mugabe is
carrying out a policy
of selective starvation against its political enemies.
The denial of food to
opposition strongholds has replaced overt violence as
the government's
principal tool of repression in Zimbabwe. Mortality and
morbidity rates will
continue to accelerate if this policy is not
reversed.
The most vulnerable sub-group is Zimbabwe's black farm workers,
who have
been displaced by ZANU-PF land-grabs. The media, especially in the
UK, has
concentrated on the plight of hundreds of white farmers forced off
the land,
but more than 1.5 million black farm workers and family members are
at risk
of acute hunger.
ICG Africa Program Co-Director John
Prendergast has just toured Zimbabwe,
and makes these
observations:
AIDS deaths are accelerating as a result of poor nutrition
due to the denial
of food to certain areas.
Repression is increasing
ahead of district elections to be held in late
September.
The
distribution of food aid has already been politicised, but the
commercial
food sector is also increasingly monopolised and corrupted
by
ZANU-PF.
The Zimbabwean government's strategy of using of food as a
political weapon
is working. People are beginning to die as a result of their
perceived
support of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), said
Prendergast.
President Mugabe's attendance at the World
Summit for Social Development in
Johannesburg and his speech on 2 September
can still be an opportunity for
regional leaders, the African Union, the
Commonwealth, the EU, and the U.S.
to press for the restoration of democracy
in Zimbabwe and save lives.
The developing famine in Zimbabwe is rooted
in bad governance, said
Prendergast, Recent U.S. rhetoric about the
illegitimacy of the Mugabe
government must be backed up by assertive
diplomacy. It is time for real
international cooperation in promoting
democratic change in Zimbabwe.
The region and the international community
must intensify efforts to produce
an inclusive interim government, leading to
internationally supervised
elections. This will require a range of pressures
and incentives, with the
close involvement of neighbouring states. In the
absence of such an effort,
thousands of Zimbabweans may die of
starvation.
Repression with food as the primary weapon - is increasing
ahead of district
elections to be held on 28-29 September. ICG has learned
that ZANU-PF
officials are telling local chiefs and headmen that if they do
not produce a
ruling party victory in their areas, they will not receive
food.
The distribution of food aid has already been politicised but
ZANU-PF is
also politicising commercial food distribution. It monopolises
food imports,
steering food to or away from areas based on political
calculations,
allowing party officials to profit from the re-sale of food at
exorbitant
prices, and in some locations requires ZANU-PF membership as a
condition of
purchasing food.
Deliberately creating food shortages in
opposition areas not only punishes
MDC supporters but also provides ruling
party officials with further
opportunities for profitable food re-sale
rackets, said Prendergast. The
system is controlled and corrupted from the
top by key ZANU-PF and military
officials straight down to the local
retailers at the village level. When
people die of starvation or diseases
related to malnutrition, it is as a
result of this political control and
corruption.
New Zealand Herald
Clark booked in
for Mugabe showdown
30.08.2002
Prime Minister Helen
Clark may face an interesting confrontation in her
Johannesburg hotel next
week - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is
understood to be a guest there,
too.
Helen Clark, who will be in South Africa for a world sustainable
development
summit, is one of Mr Mugabe's sternest critics.
He has
vowed to confront his critics in South Africa, Zimbabwe's Sunday
Mail
newspaper has said.
While many doubt Mr Mugabe will show up,
Zimbabwe has said its delegation is
braced for a "racist" anti-Mugabe
crusade.
In a recent speech Mr Mugabe included New Zealand among his
enemies.
"Britain, America, New Zealand and Australia, what colour are
they, most of
the people there? White."
New Zealand has pushed to have
Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth, for
evicting white farmers from
their properties and turning them over to
landless blacks.
Foreign
Minister Phil Goff said Helen Clark would not be concerned at the
prospect of
running into Mr Mugabe.
"He'll take on more than he can chew if he
eyeballs the Prime Minister," he
said.
New Zealand did not even accept
Mr Mugabe had a mandate to lead Zimbabwe, Mr
Goff said. Its election this
year was rigged.
It is understood several world leaders are
booked into the Sandton Hilton,
near the convention centre where the United
Nations leaders' summit is to be
held.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
is also due to stay there.
Helen Clark is expected to use the
gathering to renew bids to have Zimbabwe
ostracised.
It is thought
that New Zealand will use a famine affecting six million
people in Zimbabwe
to make "a principled stand", highlighting the country's
governance
problems.
- NZPA
New Zealand Herald
Dalziel
investigates Zimbabwe threats
30.08.2002
Immigration
Minister Lianne Dalziel has ordered a full investigation into a
report that
three black Zimbabwean supporters of President Robert Mugabe
threatened an
exiled white farmer in Auckland this year.
National MP Wayne Mapp tabled
a statement in Parliament this week reporting
the incident, which took place
at an Auckland Immigration Service office.
The statement said the three
Africans boasted of having "huge sums of money
from Mugabe" and further
conversation overheard by the farmer, fluent in the
Shona language, showed
they were in Mr Mugabe's inner circle.
The three men told the farmer how
easy it would have been to kill him back
in Zimbabwe.
Ms Dalziel said
yesterday that she had a copy of the statement.
"It does contain serious
allegations and I have asked the Immigration
Service to investigate," she
said.
"I think it's very important that the individuals concerned are
interviewed
by the authorities, and that full investigations take
place."
The incident was reported to have happened in May, and Ms Dalziel
said the
three men could have been in the country on visitor
permits.
"We have visa-free arrangements with Zimbabwe so it's highly
likely," she
said.
"If people have not provided accurate information
at the border, and have
been granted permits saying they're here as bona fide
visitors and we find
evidence they're not ... we are able to revoke those
permits."
Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff has passed a copy of the
statement to
Police Minister George Hawkins.
Mr Mapp said Mr Goff
should make a ministerial statement to Parliament on
the issue.
"The
minister must reassure all New Zealanders that the police, security
and
immigration checks are in place to stop Mugabe's thugs visiting here
and
terrorising immigrants and exiles."
-
NZPA
Zimbabwe Says NEPAD Will Divide
Africa
Business Day (Johannesburg)
August 29,
2002
Posted to the web August 29, 2002
Dumisani
Muleya
Johannesburg
Harare dismisses recovery plan as a tool of the
west, which may result in
the continent's recolonisation
Zimbabwe is
stepping up its campaign against the New Partnership for
Africa's Development
(Nepad) at a time when world leaders attending the
World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg are battling to find
solutions to the
continent's myriad problems.
In remarks which reflect President Robert
Mugabe's thinking and his
government's official line, Zimbabwe's ambassador
to Washington, Simbi
Mubako, said Nepad would become "an instrument of
African division and
conflict" if western countries were given a major role
to play in it.
He said the conditions of democracy and good governance
imposed by rich
nations in return for their support for the programme should
be dropped
because no such demands were made during Europe's reconstruction
after the
Second World War. "Why must political conditions be imposed on
Africa?" he
asked. "Why should the west want to fund a Marshall Plan which
would make
Africa economically independent of the west?
"A
western-based Marshall Plan is at best a mirage and at worst subversive
of
the liberty and independence of African states and the African Union
(AU)
itself."
Mugabe and his supporters have vehemently opposed Nepad,
claiming it was
designed to recolonise Africa. They alleged it is a
neocolonial programme
and a modern type of imperialism.
Harare's
allies, such as Libyan ruler Muammar Gadaffi, share Mugabe's views.
SA,
which is one of the architects and promoters of Nepad, has dismissed
such
claims as "nonsense".
Nepad is generally regarded as a renaissance
project for Africa through
which developed countries will invest $64bn a year
on condition African
states take steps to ensure democracy and good
governance. Mugabe and his
allies have rejected these
conditions.
Mubako said that in terms of international law, Nepad could
bind or benefit
only those countries which were party to it.
"If a
state refused to sign the Nepad document, or is denied the financial
benefits
thereof, on what basis could it be subjected to peer review'? Would
peer
review be effected by economic sanctions or military invasions?"
he
asked.
"Either way, Nepad would operate as an instrument of African
division and
conflict which would destroy the AU itself."
Mubako said
Nepad was dangerous because "African states would fight other
African states,
while the rich nations fiddle in amusement".
"Nepad should just be an
African economic programme to which western and
other nations are invited to
contribute for financial return," he said.
"All political and ideological
conditionalities must be dropped."
Opposition to Nepad from within the
continent came into the spotlight
earlier this year, when Gadaffi launched an
extraordinary attack on the
plan, saying it was a project of the "former
colonisers and racists", but
that Africa would not be "tricked easily" by
western powers.
Responding to those comments, Mbeki said Gadaffi had told
him there was not
"sufficient understanding" on the African continent about
Nepad and the AU.
"His own feeling is that more work needs to be done to
explain the Nepad
process. He felt we need to generate better understanding
of both Nepad and
the AU and I agree with that. Perhaps the process moved too
fast for some
people," Mbeki said.
MSNBC
UK forces ready for
possible Zimbabwe pullout-paper
LONDON, Aug. 28 -
Britain's elite SAS commandos have conducted
reconnaissance missions along
Zimbabwe's border to ready for a possible
evacuation of British citizens, the
Daily Telegraph newspaper said
on
Thursday.
Citing unidentified
defence officials, the newspaper said military
planners were finalising road
and air evacuation plans for an estimated
20,000 British citizens, mostly
white farmers.
A Foreign Office official
denied the government was moving to
implement contingency plans in
Zimbabwe.
The Telegraph said the plan
would involve 250 paratroopers who were
conducting a two-month training
exercise with South African troops starting
in
October.
The exercise will include Royal
Air Force transport aircraft, which
would be used to fly British citizens
from Harare airport, the
officials
said.
Evacuations could
also be made by road into South Africa, they
said.
The Ministry of Defence dismissed
the report, saying the exercise had
''nothing to do'' with the situation in
Zimbabwe.
''It has been a long-planned
air concentration exercise involving
bilateral training with South Africa,''
an MOD spokesman told Reuters.
In the
face of international criticism, Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe has moved
ahead with his plans to seize at least 2,900 of the
country's 4,500
white-owned commercial farms and turn them over to
landless
blacks.
herald.co.uk
Pilots back war on
Mugabe not Iraq, says poll
IAN BRUCE
MOST of Britain's
front-line RAF and Royal Navy pilots would rather fight to
depose Robert
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's land-grabbing president, than wage
America's war for
regime change in Iraq, an unofficial website poll
suggests.
It showed
that 87.7% of the 122 military fliers who voted opted for "ending
ethnic
genocide by starvation" in Zimbabwe before tackling Saddam Hussein.
The
UK armed forces currently have about 250 combat-ready jet pilots,
with
another 90 to 100 in training.
The poll was carried out on the
Professional Pilots' Rumour Network, a site
with over 70 forums dedicated to
aviation topics and 53,000 registered
members.
The military aircrew
forum on the website, which has been running since
1995, was used recently to
enlist the support of MPs and help organise the
campaign to clear the names
of the two RAF Chinook pilots blamed by senior
officers for the 1994 crash on
the Mull of Kintyre which wiped out most of
Northern Ireland's senior
intelligence officers.
It also became a major location for informed
debate on the Ministry of
Defence's controversial decision to axe the two
remaining Sea Harrier
squadrons, a move which will leave British naval task
forces without fighter
cover until 2015.
Because the site is monitored
by the MoD, pilots posting comments use
nicknames like "Flygunz", "Ark
Royal", "Captain Sand Dune" and "Topgun" to
conceal their identities. Serving
officers are barred from commenting
publicly on issues involving government
policy and can be disciplined for
speaking out without permission.
A
series of lively debates on Mr Mugabe's dispossession of white farmers led
to
the unofficial poll of the pilots who would have to play a leading role
in
any UK contribution to a campaign against Saddam Hussein.
One posting
read: "Call me cynical, but if Mugabe were white and trying to
commit
genocide against black people, we would be half way to Africa
right
now.
"The six million who now face starvation because of his
policy are all in
electoral districts which voted against him."
An MoD
source said yesterday: "Members of the armed services do not
formulate
government policy. They are there to carry it out. Straw polls may
or may not
reflect feeling within the forces, but are irrelevant in the
wider
context."
- Aug 30th
Zim Independent
DRC pull-out costs
$1b
Dumisani Muleya/Vincent
Kahiya
GOVERNMENT is expected to spend at least $1 billion in troop
withdrawals
from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they have been
fighting
since 1998.
The military pull-out from the Congo was this
week stepped up after
President Robert Mugabe announced two weeks ago he was
withdrawing after
four years of conflict. This followed recent DRC peace
initiatives.
About 198 troops returned home on Wednesday, leaving at
least 3 000 soldiers
in the Congo. So far over 9 000 troops have come back
from the DRC.
Military sources said the withdrawal process had been
going on smoothly but
"over $1 billion will be spent on the exercise". A
source in the army said
$480 million for withdrawals was made available in
the recent supplementary
budget when the army expected up to $700
million.
The money is needed to fly back battalions of soldiers and
to transport
heavy military equipment over rail and road. The equipment to be
moved
includes tankers, armoured cars, troop carriers and heavy
artillery.
Air Zimbabwe has been chartered to complement the
military's capacity to
ferry the troops and light equipment as the army's
transport planes have
been depleted due to old age, lack of spare parts and
poor maintenance.
An Air Zimbabwe spokesperson, David Mwenga, said
the army was paying
commercial rates to charter their planes.
"The
principle of a charter is that you don't fly to break-even," said
Mwenga.
"But we hope to make a profit."
Observers said the use of civilian
craft to carry troops demonstrated the
depletion of the country's airforce,
which no longer has the capacity to
transport troops.
At the
height of the war, Zimbabwe hired Antanovs from the Ukraine to
carry
equipment and other supplies to the DRC.
Army spokesman,
Colonel Mbonisi Gatsheni, yesterday said he could not give a
full withdrawal
timescale nor the costs. He said this was an issue that
could be dealt with
by the Ministry of Defence.
"I can't give you the specific dates and
costs, but what I can tell you is
that we would like to withdraw as fast as
we can," Gatsheni said. "What we
have been doing is that we have been
silently withdrawing over the past few
months. Those soldiers who were coming
back on relief have not been going
back unless their services were absolutely
essential."
Gatsheni said Zimbabwe still had an estimated 3 000
troops in the DRC.
He confirmed that air and rail transport would be used
in the withdrawal and
not the sea as some sources suggested. Sources had
claimed it would be
cheaper for Zimbabwe to ferry its equipment from the
western side of the DRC
via Cape Town to Beira in Mozambique and then into
Zimbabwe.
But experts said this would be both cumbersome and
dangerous.
Although it is nearer to ferry the equipment by sea
through Tanzania, the
east African country has refused to provide Zimbabwe
with access.
Gatsheni said the withdrawal process would be carefully
managed."Withdrawal
is part of war and a stage when you are most vulnerable
to attacks by the
enemy," he said. "So we have left equipment that is
proportionate with the
remaining soldiers."
Zimbabwe, which was
fighting alongside Angola, Namibia and the DRC
government against Rwandan and
Ugandan-backed rebels, spent close to $30
billion in the DRC. By last year
the country had officially sunk $10 billion
or US$204 million in the war.
This was in direct costs and did not include
other expenditures like mounting
air bridges for supplies and buying or
replacing equipment.
After
the war broke out Zimbabwe ordered two batches of arms worth $6
billion from
China to bolster its arsenal.
Military casualties have not been
disclosed although estimates put them at
500. The heaviest losses have been
on equipment. There have been reports of
rebel attacks on Zimbabwean military
hardware during the war.
The Airforce lost planes and had others grounded
during the war.
Zim Independent
Makoni mum on
sacking
Dumisani Muleya
FORMER
Finance minister Simba Makoni yesterday refused to clarify whether he
was
fired or he resigned from government before President Robert Mugabe
appointed
his "war" cabinet. Makoni, who had a torrid time battling to fix
Zimbabwe's
dislocated economy amid resistance from Zanu PF hardliners, said
he was not
ready to talk about his unceremonious exit yet.
"I'm not yet ready to
discuss that," he said in an interview. "The cabinet
was changed last weekend
and I'm no longer part of it."
Makoni was appointed minister in July
2000 alongside other so-called
technocrats, former Industry and International
Trade minister Nkosana Moyo
and Agriculture minister Joseph Made, to rescue
Zimbabwe's economy.
At the time, analysts warned their success would
depend on the extent to
which Mugabe would afford them a chance to run their
own domains.
They said the ministers would be judged by what they
would be allowed to do
as distinct from what they could do.
But it
later transpired the new ministers lacked the political clout to push
through
their policy proposals because Mugabe remained a milestone around
the neck of
business. The Zanu PF politburo, where government policy seems
to emanate
from, refused to bite the bullet of economic reform, making
recovery
practically impossible.
As a result, Makoni found himself isolated
among the ruling party's control
freaks. Moyo was forced to resign in
exasperation. Since his appointment,
Makoni has been dangerously skating on
thin ice.
No sooner had he settled in his new job in 2000 than he
found himself in
confrontation with the government's reactionary wing over
the Democratic
Republic of Congo war.
Makoni, under immense
pressure at home and abroad, was forced to reveal the
damage on the economy
caused by Mugabe's DRC military adventure. He told
parliament Zimbabwe had,
after two years of fighting, spent $10 billion and
that this was
haemorrhaging the economy.
After presenting his first 2001 budget, Makoni
became more isolated after
indicating he was going to intensify economic
reforms. With the presidential
election beckoning, the Zanu PF old guard
rejected his proposals.
In July last year, Makoni further offended
Mugabe's disciples by telling the
nation that contrary to Made's claims that
Zimbabwe had enough maize and
wheat, the country was in fact facing shortages
and needed to import.
Makoni earned further hostility from the party
because of his reports to
parliament on the parlous state of the economy
ahead of a crucial election.
He recently exacerbated the situation by
declaring there was lack of
political will to address Zimbabwe's economic
woes. But the final nail in
his coffin was the issue of devaluation of the
Zimbabwe dollar.
Makoni insisted on devaluation for economic reasons
while his counterparts
opposed it on political grounds. Mugabe later
intervened and delivered the
coup de grace when he said those advocating
devaluation were "saboteurs" and
"enemies" of his government.
The
next thing Makoni was out. It is not clear yet whether he resigned,
which
Mugabe says he did, or he was
dismissed.
Zim Independent
GMB suspends grain
imports
Vincent Kahiya
THE government has suspended
grain imports until the end of the year arguing
that humanitarian food aid
will cater for the country's needs in the next
four months, industry sources
said this week.
Humanitarian groups this week predicted acute
food shortages in the coming
months as donor aid had further slowed, while
government efforts were
hamstrung by foreign currency
shortages.
The United Nations will next week dispatch a special
envoy, Terry Morris, to
assess the humanitarian situation in the country and
discuss the extent of
famine with senior government officials. The sources
said the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) had not put up any tenders for grain
imports since
June and that there were no plans for new imports between now
and the end of
the year.
The sources said to date, the government
had at most imported 750 000
tonnes - discounting a Jewel Bank initiative to
import about 450 000 tonnes.
Zimbabwe needs about 1,8 million tonnes between
now and the next harvest.
The last tender floated was for 200 000
tonnes of maize of which a
Harare-based company, Timpani, was awarded a
contract to import 100 000
tonnes.
Sources at the GMB said
companies awarded tenders were under-performing and
failing to secure maize
from declining stocks on world markets. There is
huge demand for maize
triggered by the drought in southern Africa.
The sources said even if
the GMB had stocks to run until the end of the
year, it should have an
on-going import programme to buy next year's
requirements at this year's
costs. A tonne of maize is trading at US$162
ex-South Africa and by October
the cost is expected to go up by US$10.
"For argument's sake, if Zimbabwe
imports 100 000 tonnes of maize now, it
will save US$2 million on what it
will cost by the end of the year," the
source said.
An aid agency
source on Wednesday said out of the US$229,4 million required
for
humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe, a paltry US$79,7 million had
been
pledged to date.
"The information we have is that there
should be 426 000 tonnes coming from
the Americas and I am sure this is the
Jewel Bank maize," the source said.
"Other than that there are no other
contracts in place."
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Regional Disaster
Alleviation Trust (ZRDAT), a
private sector initiative to import food, said
response to the appeal for
financial assistance had been
slow.
"The only meaningful deals we are in the process of finalising
involve two
non-governmental organisations which have indicated that they
have about
US$60 000 to import maize," ZRDAT secretary, Priscilla Chigumba,
said. "To
exhaust our current permit we would require US$450 million and
there is no
way a single organisation can meet that."
The Trust
was granted a permit to import 700 000 tonnes of
maize.
Zim Independent
NMB, Parliamentary
Committee in joint initiative
Godfrey Marawanyika
IN a
bid to rescue the economy from continued slide, the Parliamentary
Committee
on Foreign Affairs, International Relations and Trade has teamed
up with NMB
Bank to formulate an economic blueprint for the country, the
Zimbabwe
Independent has learnt.
The parliamentary committee yesterday met with
various stakeholders
comprising executives from the banking and business
community to discuss
issues pertaining to land reform, international
relations and economic
recovery.
NMB chief executive officer Dr
Julius Makoni confirmed his bank was part of
the initiative.
"NMB
has been approached to provide resources for the formulation of an
economic
blueprint and we have done just that," said Makoni.
Top on the agenda
of yesterday's meeting was the land and agrarian reform
process, which
focused on foreign exchange, property rights and
transparency. The meeting
also discussed Zimbabwe's international relations,
the economy, interest
rates, inflation, price controls, exports
and
industrialisation.
The think-tank is supposed to come up with
a final economic document that
will be presented to President Robert Mugabe
before the end of September.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee
on Foreign Affairs, International
Relations and Trade, Philip Chiyangwa,
yesterday refused to comment on the
initiative and referred all questions to
NMB Bank deputy managing director,
James Mushore.
If accepted, the
proposals would become the third economic document in five
years after
Zimprest and the Millenium Economic Recovery Programme.
In the past
two years, major macro-economic challenges have continued to
haunt the
government which has failed to arrest the decline in gross
domestic product,
contain the hyper-inflationary environment and stem high
money supply growth.
A high domestic debt, weak balance of payment position
and foreign exchange
shortages also dog the economy.
Although the process is still in its
infancy, participants yesterday
expressed reservations about government's
commitment to implement any
economic recovery policy.
They said
there was insufficient political will to deal with the
economic
crisis.
"Government has a record of not implementing
economic blueprints it has
drafted. I do not see why they would respect this
one," said a source who
attended yesterday's
meeting.
Zim Independent
Zim saved from
another fuel crisis
Barnabas Thondhlana
AN
eleventh hour intervention by banks has saved Zimbabwe from a severe
fuel
crisis, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.
Comoil of
Libya, which supplies much of Zimbabwe's fuel needs, in the past
two weeks
declined to pump more fuel to Zimbabwe unless they were paid US$60
million in
arrears. The Libyans meet 70% of Zimbabwe's fuel needs, with the
remaining
30% coming from Sasol in South Africa.
In a deal negotiated by former
Mines and Energy minister Edward
Chindori-Chininga, Royal Bank and NMB Bank
came to the rescue with two
tranches of US$30 million and US$150 million
respectively, enabling the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe to access 33
million litres of fuel stored
at Noczim's Msasa depot.
The fuel is
owned by Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) of Kuwait, who are
leasing the
storage tanks to service their clients in the region.
"The country
actually started experiencing fuel shortages on the Heroes and
Defence Forces
days, but this was more of a deliberate move by some fuel
companies who were
not taking fuel from Msasa for distribution," said a
source close to the
developments at Noczim.
"The intervention of Chindori-Chiniga, who
took the MD of one leading oil
firm to Msasa to show him his tankers were
conspicuous by their absence,
saved the situation."
The US$180
million deal is reportedly being transacted at an exchange rate
of $150/US$1,
and will enable the country to have fuel for five months.
IPG
undertook to release fuel onto the market on the understading that they
would
replenish their stocks from Libyan oil supplies.
The Libyans are
reportedly not keen to have the fuel they deliver stored at
either Msasa or
any other depot, preferring instead that Zimbabwe
immediately distributes all
the fuel delivered. This enables the Libyans to
maintain a crunching grip on
Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe last week split the Mines and
Energy ministry,
leaving Chindori-Chininga with the Mines and Mining
Development portfolio,
and creating the new Ministry Energy and Power
Development headed by Amos
Midzi.
Zim Independent
Police blame bomb
attack on Zim's enemies
Blessing Zulu
PRIVATE radio station, Voice
of the People (VOP) has been silenced by a
powerful bomb blast that
completely destroyed its offices in Harare's Milton
Park in the small hours
of yesterday.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was quick to associate
the bombing with
conspirators bent on tarnishing the image of the country
ahead of President
Mugabe's participation at the Earth Summit in
Johannesburg.
VOP offices at 32 Van Praagh Avenue were completely
destroyed in the inferno
and virtually everything in the office
incinerated.
A woman who stays at the premises but asked not to be
named said three men
armed with guns approached the security guard on duty at
the offices around
1am and told him to leave.
"An explosive device
was then hurled into the building through a window,"
the woman said. "The
building was extensively damaged and the roof blown up,
but no one was
injured as the last person left the office just a few hours
before the
attack."
VOP chairperson Dr Faith Ndebele said they had lost
everything that was in
the building. "We are yet to do an audit of the exact
amount," she said.
The bombing comes barely two months after the police
raided the premises in
search of "broadcasting equipment". Bvudzijena said
evidence gathered so far
pointed to a conspiracy theory.
"We are
exploring several possible angles," said Bvudzijena. "The statement
from the
security guard is not consistent and we have to interview
him
again."
Bvudzijena said they could not rule out the
possibility that this was a
calculated move to tarnish Zimbabwe's
image.
"The timing of the bombing raises suspicion because the
coincidence with the
Earth Summit in South Africa is rather puzzling," he
said.
"There are many people who are against the land reform
programme and will
stop at nothing, even using military
means."
Five members of Criminal Investigations Department searched
the offices of
Amani Trust and took away documents belonging to the
non-governmental
organisation.
VOP was formed in 2000 before the
parliamentary election and was recently
working with SW Africa Radio which
broadcasts in Shona and Ndebele from the
United Kingdom. After the
presidential election the two focused on health
issues such as
HIV/Aids.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) condemned the
bombing and
urged the police to act professionally.
"Although the
police have begun investigations which we believe might lead
to arrest of the
culprits, past examples of investigations of attacks on
media establishments
are not encouraging at all," Misa said.
This is so with reference to
the bombing of the Daily News offices and
printing press in 2000 and 2001
respectively. The bombing of VOP offices is
the fourth on a media
organisation within a space of three years.
Misa-Zimbabwe said the
attacks were being committed against a background of
an already bad media
environment.
"The attacks on media establishments are without doubt
meant to silence the
media and ultimately the whole society," Misa
said.
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) also condemned the
attack.
"The bombing is a blow to Zimbabweans'
constitutionally-guaranteed right to
freedom of expression and to receive and
disseminate information unhindered.
This further erodes the nation's
democratic aspirations," said MMPZ in a
statement.
Police
yesterday raided the offices of a local NGO, Amani Trust, and
arrested a
senior official accused of giving the press information which
allegedly
tarnished the image of the government.
Bvudzijena said Amani Trust's
interview with the Telegraph claiming that war
veterans raped girls between
11 and 12 years was another attempt to taint
the
government.
"There are reports in the Telegraph to the effect that
Zanu PF militia and
war veterans raped girls aged between 11 and 12 years old
and this emanated
from Amani Trust," said Bvudzijena.
He confirmed
they had arrested a trustee of Amani Trust, Dr Frances Lovemore
and that they
were also looking for the director, Tony
Reeler.
Zim Independent
$20b needed for
services on farms
Augustine Mukaro/ Blessing
Zulu
AT least $20 billion is needed for infrastructure development
in
resettlement areas after government reneged on its election promise
that
farmhouses would be converted into schools and clinics, it emerged
this
week.
When government launched the land reform programme two
years ago, it said it
would convert farmhouses and other structures on
acquired farms into
clinics, schools and essential facilities to service the
newly-resettled
farmers.
However, new settlers under the A2 model
have moved into the farmhouses and
there has been no attempt to convert these
properties into public
facilities. Senior Zanu PF and government officials
have targeted farms with
good farmhouses, putting paid plans to use them for
primary infrastructure
development.
A survey by the Zimbabwe
Independent this week revealed that each of the
country's eight provinces
where resettlement has taken place requires at
least $2,5 billion for the
construction of schools, clinics, Blair toilets
and the drilling of
boreholes.
Provincial administrators throu-ghout the country
confirmed they had
submitted their infrastructure budgets to the Ministry of
Rural Resources
and Water Development.
According to the Masvingo
provincial budget proposal, an estimated $1,5
billion is needed to provide
the new settlers with basic services such as
schools, health facilities,
drinking water, dipping services, marketing and
postal
services.
"Masvingo alone needs at least 50 schools and 25 clinics in
the new
resettlement areas," the budget proposal says.
Masvingo
provincial administrator, Alfonse Chikurira, said the need for
schools was
the same in all provinces in the country.
Manicaland province last
month submitted a budget of close to $300 million
for the construction of
clinics alone. At least 30 sites were identified and
construction of the
clinics is set to start as soon as money is made
available.
Endy
Mhlanga, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National War Veterans
Association
and a member of the National Land Taskforce, this week confirmed
that plans
were under way to construct schools in resettlement areas.
"I
attended the Zanu PF National Consultative Assembly meeting with
President
Mugabe, Joseph Made, Nicholas Goche and Joyce Mujuru which
discussed
infrastructure development in resettlement areas," said
Mhlanga.
"Mujuru is responsible for this project which targets AI
resettlement areas
and not the A2 model. The A2 model is a business venture
and we are not
focusing on that at the moment."
Some model A2
settlers in Masvingo have been forced to pay up to $2 000 per
household
towards the construction of schools.
"We have been asked to pay and
also mould bricks for the proposed school and
clinic while the base commander
occupies the farmhouse," one resettled
farmer in Masvingo
said.
The farmhouse grab scandal has brought in almost all the Zanu
PF top brass
and its hangers-on.
Youth, Gender and Employment
Creation deputy minister Shuvai Mahofa was
early this year embroiled in a
tragic incident over the Lothian Farm
farmhouse in the Roy farming area of
Gutu South. Mahofa allegedly hired Zanu
PF militia to drive out local war
veterans leader Amos Maseva from the
farmhouse. Maseva died from wounds
inflicted in the attack.
Marondera West MP and senior Zimbabwe
National Army officer Brigadier Ambros
Mutinhiri seized the Waltondale
farmhouse in his constituency.
Retired army general Solomon Mujuru took
over the Alamein Farm farmhouse
last year before ordering the auction of
assets worth $40 million under the
guise of paying gratuities to farm
workers.
Mashonaland West governor Peter Chanetsa reportedly grabbed
five farms in
the province. Officials at CFU said almost all Zanu PF
officials who grabbed
farms throughout the country had moved into the
farmhouses because they had
no time to start building their own
structures.
Zim Independent
MDC allowed to
engage SA lawyer
Blessing Zulu
THE Ministry
of Justice has reversed its initial decision denying the
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) permission to hire a South
African lawyer in the
case in which Morgan Tsvangirai is challenging
President Robert Mugabe's
election victory.
The ministry this month gave the greenlight for the
party to engage an
advocate from South Africa as part of its legal team to
challenge Mugabe's
disputed victory.
"We have assembled a
formidable legal team led by Senior Counsel Advocate
Jeremy Gauntlet who is
chairman of the South African Bar," said the MDC in
a
statement.
"Advocate Gauntlet is a respected lawyer who has
represented former
President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Gauntlet has also
represented President Thabo Mbeki.
"He advises
the Namibian government on constitutional matters and is a judge
of the High
Court of Lesotho. He also sits on the advisory council of the
International
Bar Association," said the statement. Advocate Gauntlet will
be supported in
argument by Advocate Eric Matinenga.
The two advocates will be
assisted by Advocate Adrian de Bourbon, SC,
Advocate Pearson Nherere and
Bryant Elliot. Another lawyer, Yvonne
Mahlunge-Marizani is heading the
evidence-gathering team, which claims to
have unearthed some "startling and
remarkable" details.
The MDC said it had been hampered in its
build-up by the refusal of the
Registrar-General's office to avail them a
copy of the voters roll and has
already appealed to the Supreme
Court.
"The MDC legal affairs department has been working round the
clock since
April to prepare for the high profile case that will determine
the future of
Zimbabwe. We are pleased to report that we are now ready to
proceed to
trial," reads the statement from the MDC.
The High
Court ordered the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pay $2 million as
security
deposit, which has now been paid. The party managed to raise $2,7
million
from well-wishers.
The presidential election campaign was marred by
what local and
international observers described as gross human rights
violations in the
form of killings, beatings, torture and abductions. The
Zimbabwe Republic
Police, which promised to investigate all political
killings during the
presidential poll, has not done anything to
date.
The ruling Zanu PF party is also likely to hire a lawyer from
South Africa
to brighten its chances of winning the case. The third term of
the High
Court has been set for the major trials involving MDC top
officials.
The trial of youth leader Nelson Chamisa, accused of
inciting public
violence, has been set for November 4 and 5. Tsvangirai,
Welshman Ncube and
Renson Gasela's treason trial has been set down for
November 29.
The murder trial involving Lobengula-Magwegwe MP
Fletcher-Dulini Ncube and
six other MDC activists accused of killing war
veterans leader Cain Nkala
and Zanu PF official Limukani Luphahla should also
be held in the third
term. Observers said this was a deliberate decision by
the government to
stretch the MDC's
resources.
Zim Independent
SA refuses to lift
ban on Zim meat
Mthulisi Mathuthu
SOUTH
Africa has refused to lift the ban on Zimbabwean beef and pork
products
imposed after the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Beitbridge
and the
Midlands area of Zhombe recently.
The Zimbabwe Independent understands
captains of the pork industry, led by
Tripple C Pigs director, Kelvin
Parsons, failed to strike a common ground
with the South African department
of veterinary services at a meeting held
in Johannesburg last
week.
"We are in constant touch with the South Africans and Parsons's
trip to
Johannesburg was part of our efforts to strike a common ground but
nothing
has come out so far," said a source. "But we know they will
understand."
The government is battling to stop the spread of the
foot and mouth disease
to save export markets. Only this week, the director
of the Department of
Veterinary Services, Stuart Hargreaves, announced the
disease was under
control and the department was guarding against the illegal
movement of meat
and livestock in the Midlands area.
South
Africa's ban is seen as a retaliation after government last year
banned that
country's beef imports following the outbreak of foot and mouth
in the
Limpopo Province.
Industry captains told the Independent this week
the foot and mouth disease
had cost the country the South African and
European Union markets.
It emerged this week that Colcom, the largest
producers of pork products in
the country, had about 1 400 tonnes of pork
intended for the export market
stored in Gweru. Only Namibia and Mauritius
still accept Zimbabwe's beef and
pork
products
Zim Independent
Mugabe and cronies trapped says
Tsvangirai
Vincent Kahiya
THE opposition MDC did not mobilise for mass action against President
Robert
Mugabe after the March poll because this would have played into
Mugabe's
plans to crush pro-democracy organisations, MDC leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai,
has said.
In a recent interview with Padraig O'Malley, a
Senior Fellow at the John W
MCCormack Institute at the University of
Massachusetts, Boston, excerpts of
which were made available to the Zimbabwe
Independent, Tsvangirai said after
the election Mugabe was spoiling for a
fight. Mass action would have given
him the excuse to come down heavily on
the opposition.
"We realised that Mugabe was spoiling for a fight,"
said Tsvangirai. "But we
didn't want to give it to him. We didn't want to
play on his turf.
"So we didn't organise people to confront their
stolen victory, to confront
him over the stolen victory. We said, 'calm down'
because if we were to
engage in mass protests, mass actions, then I think the
whole democratic
movement would have been crushed. That's what he was
prepared for," he said.
Tsvangirai said as a result his party had to
build people's confidence until
such a time when Zimbabweans were able to
confront Mugabe's dictatorship.
He said Mugabe and his cronies were
trapped because they were isolated
locally and
internationally.
"It is the responsibility, I think, on the part of
the MDC, to find a back
door for Mugabe because if we don't, he is likely to
pull down the whole
building with him," he said. "He won't mind. He has
nothing to lose. In
fact, the more chaos and instability he can cause, the
more he is less
accountable for his actions over the last three or four
years."
He said the young generation who believed it was time to
think about armed
struggle had to tread with caution and choose between
violent and
non-violent means of bringing about change.
"We must
be conscious that beyond this chaos, we'll have to pick up the
pieces," said
Tsvangirai.
He said attempts by Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo and
South African
president Thabo Mbeki to promote inter-party dialogue between
Zanu PF and
the MDC after the March poll had given President Mugabe the
opportunity to
consolidate his power in the face of international accusations
that he stole
the election.
"There was one mistake in their
strategy," said Tsvangirai. "They came in
hoping to bring about dialogue and
reconciliation between the parties - that
was an attempt to legitimise
Mugabe, without confronting the issue of
Mugabe's legitimacy in the
election," said Tsvangirai.
"In other words, they chose diplomacy
rather than democracy and gave Mugabe
space to consolidate his position, as
it were, as president of the country,"
he said.
On South Africa's
role in trying to solve the Zimbabwean issue, Tsvangirai
said Mbeki's African
National Congress was divided on what to do. He said
Mbeki's position was
premised on the notion that Mugabe was a stabilising
force and had the
instruments of power.
He said Mbeki believed that if there was a
change of government, there might
be conflict, hence preferred a reformed
Zanu PF government.
Tsvangirai also said Britain's robust stance on the
land issue in Zimbabwe
had not been good for Zimbabwe.
"We have a
land question here," he said. "It's not as if Britain is fighting
for
democracy in Zimbabwe; it has its own national interest in the land
question.
The robust British participation has not been good for us.
"There are
many African crises, why this special interest in Zimbabwe? Those
who
distinguish between the forest and the trees are labelled puppets of
whites
and the British," he said.
Zim Independent
Mbeki faces
unpleasant choices over Zimbabwe
Dumisani Muleya
SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki will not
act on the Zimbabwe crisis
unless the country explodes into chaos, the
national director of South
Africa's Institute of International Affairs, Greg
Mills, has said.
Mills said Mbeki was bound to maintain his "quiet
diplomacy" towards
Zimbabwe despite its demonstrable failure to influence
President Robert
Mugabe's policies even after his controversial victory in
the March
election.
The South African analyst said the problem with
Mbeki - who is under global
pressure at the ongoing Earth Summit in
Johannesburg to deal with Zimbabwe -
is that he has become hostage to African
solidarity politics.
"As a result, unless Zimbabwe explodes, South
Africa's policy will waver
between benign neglect and containment," Mills
wrote in the Business Day
newspaper this week.
"There are two
dangers in this approach, however," he said. "First, benign
neglect is
interpreted as tacit support for Mugabe's regime, negatively
affecting South
Africa's investment and leadership image. Second, it
undermines the letter
and spirit of Nepad (New Partnership for
Africa's
Development)."
In this case, two Zimbabwean scenarios
emerge, each with its own policy
options, costs and opportunities, Mills
observed.
"These are, simply put, life with and without Mugabe," he
said. "In the
former, the most likely course is that external actors,
including South
Africa, wait until the land invasions are over and try to
re-engage with
Zanu PF with two aims in mind: first, to negotiate a
rapprochement with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and,
second, to put in place
an economic stabilisation and recovery
package."
The latter, Mills noted, would have to include the vital
element of the
second scenario, which is Mugabe's withdrawal from
politics.
"No recovery is possible with Mugabe in place. But how can
he be convinced -
or coerced - into stepping down?" he asked. "Here the MDC's
leadership and
guidance would be critical, but it would currently appear not
only to be
under considerable threat from the state apparatus, but also
fragmented,
fractured and rudderless."
Mills said the current
state of paralysis in the MDC itself meant that the
removal of Mugabe
Milosevic-style was unlikely, especially as more troops
were returning from
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the
authorities were stiffening
their resolve and security apparatus.
"A wild card, though, is still
the worsening food shortages in urban areas,
the net effect of Mugabe's Khmer
Rouge textbook economics that have seen
Zimbabwe's economy reduced by
one-third in four years," Mills said.
One avenue for applying
pressure on Mugabe to relinquish power would be for
South Africa to work in
tandem with Nigeria, as it has been, and with
Angola, as it has
not.
This strategy for leadership transition, said Mills, raised a
number of
issues in turn. "Who will take over from Mugabe, who sacked
moderate Simba
Makoni in a cabinet reshuffle? And what will be the likely
path of both this
transition and their policies?"
Pretoria is
likely to stick to its guns over Zimbabwe, just as the West is
unlikely to
stick its neck out, he said.
"The policy choices seem to be between
no talk and lots of it, and little
action both ways," said Mills. "The West
could deliver an asset freeze, but
seems to lack the will and inclination to
do so. Current policy essentially
lets events run their
course."
Mills said one knowledgeable analyst commented recently on
Western inaction
on the Zimbabwean crisis: "It's Africa, and they don't
care." Pretoria has
to start showing it does, he
concluded.
Zim Independent
War cabinet a damp
squib
Dumisani Muleya
AS Zimbabweans continue to ponder President
Robert Mugabe's uninspiring
"war" cabinet reshuffle, analysts say he has once
again squandered an
opportunity to give the rudderless country
direction.
Commentators say Mugabe's stick-in-the-mud team - which he
referred to as a
"fully-fledged political war council" - is unable to move
the country out of
its economic crisis.
University of Zimbabwe
professor of business studies Tony Hawkins said
Mugabe wasted a glorious
chance to reassure the world he was not totally
beyond redemption. He said
Mugabe's refusal to adopt a fundamental policy
shift and provide enlightened
leadership would accelerate the country's
decline.
"It was a
really pathetic failure to set the country on a new path to
economic
recovery," Hawkins said. "There is no way this economy will recover
under the
sort of policies this hardline cabinet will pursue."
Hawkins said it
was shocking that Mugabe fired Finance minister Simba
Makoni - although
Mugabe claims he resigned - and replaced him with Herbert
Murerwa who
precipitated the current economic implosion.
"It's unbelievable
because Murerwa was in charge when the Zimbabwe dollar
crashed in 1997, when
war veterans were paid billions of unbudgeted funds,
when the currency was
pegged in 1999 and when these problems actually
escalated," he
said.
Political analyst Brian Raftopoulos said Mugabe wasted an
opportunity to
unravel his party's convoluted succession by remaining
absorbed in crisis
management.
"It is not clear what his future
plans are," Raftopoulos said. "All that he
is doing at the moment is digging
in and barricading himself. He is
concerned with loyalties rather than
capacity in his choice of ministers."
Analysts say if Mugabe had
replaced his two vice-presidents, Simon Muzenda
and Joseph Msika, that could
have triggered a new shift in the ruling party
hierarchy and helped to sort
out the complex succession issue.
Instead of overhauling government,
Mugabe clung to his party's old guard,
clearly showing his unwillingness to
relinquish power yet.
His decision to retain reactionary and
combative ministers also revealed his
rigid determination to persist on a
confrontational path with the world.
As usual, Mugabe - who has
become a seasoned crisis manager and fire-fighter
himself - shunted around
old-timers and retrieved Witness Mangwende from the
political scrapyard and
put him back to the collective feeding trough.
In a surprise move, he
appointed Zanu PF's losing candidate in the Harare
mayoral election, Amos
Midzi, Minister of Energy and Power Development.
Midzi, who was recently
fired for incompetence as Zanu PF chair for Harare
province, lost to
opposition Movement for Democratic Change candidate Elias
Mudzuri by 56 796
to 262 275 votes.
Mugabe also proved his reshuffle was a patronage
arrangement by enlarging
cabinet at a time when it should have been trimmed.
New ministries were
created and some restructured and renamed in the cosmetic
reshuffle. Deputy
ministers were increased.
Analysts say
refractory stone-throwers such as Jonathan Moyo, Patrick
Chinamasa, Joseph
Made and Ignatius Chombo were retained for their ability
to reflect their
master's intransigent and bellicose posture.
Kembo Mohadi was
apparently promoted to Home Affairs, where he replaced John
Nkomo, for
continuing to hold his Beitbridge constituency hostage to
Zanu
PF.
Observers say Nkomo, whatever plans Mugabe had and
speculation thereafter,
was demoted from senior to junior minister of Special
Affairs. He is
expected to become Mugabe's special envoy to spearhead
Zimbabwe's
fire-fighting agenda on the diplomatic
front.
Diplomatic sources said Nkomo, who has no constituency, would
be engaging
countries like South Africa on issues such as land.
In
the end, however, analysts say the reshuffle was largely targeted at
the
reform-minded Makoni who paid for his refusal to heed warnings that
the
Finance ministry would be his political graveyard.
Since his
appointment in 2000, Makoni, who is not a trained expert on
finance and
economics, failed to halt the economic decline largely due to
lack of
political clout.
Mugabe's cabinet changes appeared designed to
consolidate failed economic
policies such as a fixed exchange rate, price and
foreign exchange controls
and nationalisation. Currently the government has
no cohesive economic
policy.
At times ministers come up with sound
economic reform and recovery policies
only for Mugabe to dump them at
funerals and rallies.
Hawkins said Zimbabwe's future was ominous
given that the country's gross
domestic product was expected to contract by
at least 11% this year.
Money supply growth, with all its inflationary
pressures, is spinning out of
control and Zimbabwe's inflation is expected to
surge from 123,5% to at
least 150% by the end of the year. Problems such as
the food crisis,
unemployment, poverty, HIV/Aids and the concomitant
instability can only
worsen.
Zim Independent
Land reform
programme far from over
Dumisani Muleya/Augustine
Mukaro
ZIMBABWE'S land reform programme, which should be nearing
completion before
the onset of the rainy season, is far from over as
confusion reigns on most
farms which ideally should be a hive of
activity.
Political commentators say government is bluffing when it
claims it will
soon complete and tie up the loose ends in the land
redistribution exercise.
There is widespread chaos fuelled by the sweeping
eviction of up to 3 000
white farmers.
Authorities have set tomorrow
as the official deadline for the completion of
Zimbabwe's reverse land grab
"revolution". Settlers allocated land under
Model A2 are expected to have
moved into their new properties by tomorrow or
risk having them repossessed
by the state.
But critics say the deadline is impractical and unworkable
considering the
confusion on the farms. They argue it will be sometime before
the convoluted
logjam is broken and reconstruction of the agricultural sector
undertaken.
Analyst John Robertson, who has written several papers on
land reform, said
the deadlock over the land redistribution process was not
over yet. Farmers
are currently suing government en masse for unlawful
evictions and this has
shifted focus from the farms into the courts where
protracted legal battles
loom.
"It is going to remain bogged down in
the courts because farmers are looking
for and finding evidence that the
exercise has not been done according to
the law and procedurally," Robertson
said.
"Farmers are challenging some sections of the law under which the
process is
being undertaken. From the look of things, the battle may remain
in the
courts for years."
Other analysts said it was impossible to
avoid a judicial imbroglio on land
reform when the process
was not
proceeding in terms of the letter and spirit of the law and the
parties
involved are hostile to each other.
The militant Commercial Farmers Union
(CFU) splinter group, Justice for
Agriculture (JAG), has vowed to go down
fighting, dashing hopes of a simple
government take-over. The group said it
would contest its members' property
seizures in the courts and go to
international courts if this was necessary.
JAG chair Dave Conolly said
the crisis was not over yet. "The land reform
issue is far from over as we
will continue to challenge all the unlawful
acquisitions or evictions,"
Conolly said.
"Even if government succeed in its land seizures, this will
mark only the
beginning of worse things to come - hunger and famine. People
do not eat
land but products of hard work on land."
Government and
farmers have been slugging it out in the courts since the
land seizures
started in 2000. Farmers, who maintain President Robert Mugabe
's scorched
earth land policies are illegal and destructive in many aspects,
have won a
number of court victories against government since April 2000
when the High
Court ruled that farm invasions were illegal. This has thrown
government's
land grab programme into disarray.
But Mugabe, in an apparent reference
to adverse court rulings, recently
warned his government would "take no
chances; brook no impediments and
certainly suffer no avoidable delays" in
its bid to complete the agrarian
reform as scheduled.
It is common
cause that a lot of unfavourable court rulings have been
ignored or
side-stepped by government using - in some cases manifestly
abusing - its
simple majority in parliament.
Analysts said Mugabe's threats revealed
his growing frustration with the
legal route to land reform, which
authorities have always been anxious to
avoid. Government only managed to
reverse court rulings against it after
revamping the judiciary and packing
the Supreme Court bench with compliant
judges.
After the judicial
re-engineering, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice
Godfrey Chidyausiku in
October ruled the land reform exercise was lawful and
should proceed as was -
without a planned programme - reversing an earlier
judgement by the same
court under former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay.
Initially, the court in
December 2000 demanded that government first
produces a programme of action
to avoid plodding through the exercise
without clear-cut targets.
Now
the exercise seems to have hit new levels of uncertainty. The next few
months
are likely to be decisive as far as the land issue is concerned
although the
crisis could run for a much longer period than anticipated in
official
circles.
There is much at stake for all concerned in the land reform
issue. It is not
just about the commercial farmers, or 350 000 farm workers
who together with
their families number up to two million, or the ancillary
businesses around
the country that are dependent on servicing farms and
receiving their
output, but also the possible consequences of Zimbabwe's
economic implosion
on the region.
This explains the complaints,
muffled and timid though they might be, by
regional leaders over Zimbabwe's
land reforms.
In a speech during Heroes Day, Mugabe said he was plodding
through the land
redistribution exercise - which has gone through various
stages ranging from
fast-track to Model A2 resettlement - to catch up with
the rainy season. But
in so doing he has triggered more confusion which might
delay the process
further despite his determination to proceed
arbitrarily.
Since the June 24 deadline for thousands of farmers to stop
operations and
the August 8 cut-off date for them to move out, there has been
chaos on the
farms. The confusion was fuelled by government's discretionary
eviction
orders and farmers' defiance of those expulsion notices. Following
the clash
between government and farmers, the authorities have since been
stepping up
the wholesale purge of landowners by hounding, arresting and
prosecuting
farmers resisting the evictions.
Analysts say court
rulings against the evictions have further compounded the
situation and
diminished chances of a quick resolution to the
long-running
crisis.
Farmers' refusal to vacate their properties
either because they have nowhere
else to go or the farms were being seized
unlawfully, and government's
crackdown using the police, army and Zanu PF
militias have created an
ominous stand-off which could get the country stuck
in a quagmire for years.
To date close to 250 farmers accused of defying
eviction orders have been
arrested and taken to court. The farmers were
granted different bail
conditions ranging from $5 000 to $10 000 and will be
appearing before the
courts across the country on different dates beginning
next week.
Magistrates have also worsened the muddle by giving
contradictory rulings.
Some have told farmers to remain on their properties
pending the outcome of
a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the
eviction process,
while others have advised them to leave
immediately.
Government's admission during High Court hearings on land
cases last week
that some its Section 8 orders served on farmers were invalid
has
complicated matters. Eviction of farmers sitting under preliminary
notices
as opposed to Section 8 orders has also deepened the
predicament.
However, Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union chair Thomas
Nherera said
further delays would not be tolerated.
"Land preparation
is already late for crops such as tobacco," Nherera said.
"It could appear
harsh if government takes back land allocated to new
farmers due to late
occupancy but further delays will mean no production in
the coming season
from the new farmers."
Nherera said deferring the transfer of land would
delay the resuscitation of
agriculture, Zimbabwe's economic
mainstay.
"As unions we need to know how many people have taken up their
land so that
we can reach them with services from inputs to technical
assistance," he
said.
"No individual anywhere in the world will be
allowed to hold government to
ransom. In any case, the majority of the
farmers have complied with the
demands of Section 8 and vacated their
farms."
Farmers vacated under duress but have filed court applications
challenging
their ejection which they say was unlawful.
Robertson said
while it was difficult to conclude now that newly-resettled
farmers would
fail in their endeavours due to lack of meaningful support
structures and
government assistance, signs of catastrophe were already
showing.
"My
view is that this land reform programme is going to be a disaster," he
said.
"Right now there is already strong evidence that it is going to be
a
calamity. Its impact on the economy has been devastating and we may
find
ourselves food beggars until 2005. Let's wait and see. The verdict will
be
out next year."
Zim Independent
Only political
change will reverse economic slide
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's
"war" and "economic" cabinet is nothing more than
a rearrangement of death
chairs on the deck of Zimbabwe's ill-fated Titanic
while it cruises towards a
destructive iceberg. It goes without saying that
the economy is being
destroyed and there can be no recovery without
political change. But we have
to make do with the devil until something,
hopefully positive, comes out of
the Movement for Democratic Change's court
challenge to the March 9/11
presidential election.
As we went to the presidential election in March,
three scenarios were
possible: economic collapse, maintenance of the status
quo and "out of the
woods". One can argue that Zimbabwe is now left with a
mixture of the first
two. The "out of the woods" scenario has all but
collapsed as it was
premised on the possibility of "a just" electoral outcome
that would
engender goodwill among local and international economic actors.
This would
have resulted in large inflows of aid and foreign investment
required to
kick-start the economy.
Zimbabweans should ask whether
there can be economic recovery without
political change. Can government
muster and harness goodwill from regional
economic blocs such as Sadc and
Comesa and the international community? Such
a step would avert economic
collapse and, at best, sustain the status quo
that obtained before the
election.
Zimbabwe's slow but sure ostracisation from its traditional
trading partners
has long begun. While none of her regional partners has
imposed
restrictions, Zimbabwe has effectively been isolated from many
international
pacts benefiting other countries in the region, notably
Washington's Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), the European Union's
Cotonou Agreement
and the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(Nepad).
In the last two years a lot of investment opportunities have
been lost as a
result of the isolation. In 1999 the US banned Zimbabwe from
the Agoa
provisions, targeting its export cotton lint in particular. Zimbabwe
has
been completely excluded from Nepad's five programme elements:
political
governance, including peace, security and conflict resolution;
economic and
corporate governance, including measurement of economic
governance and peer
review mechanism; infrastructure, including information
and communication
technology, water, sanitation, transport and energy;
agricultural market
access, including harmonisation of standards to encourage
intra-African
trade; financial and banking standards, including capital flows
and
mobilisation of domestic resources and identifying goals, criteria
and
mechanisms for debt reduction.
Zimbabwe will certainly have a
torrid time accessing conditions for
participating in, let alone negotiating,
the economic partnership
arrangements with its Sadc/ACP partners and the
European Union. At the same
time all its neighbours are preparing to
negotiate the fifth round of the
World Trade Organisation talks.
The
third question is whether Zimbabwe faces an economic meltdown? Some
would
argue that, by African standards, the country is in its worst-ever
economic
crisis with unemployment at a record 80%; inflation at an all-time
high of
123,5% and steadily rising; many businesses closing down, and donors
having
frozen aid. Sixty percent of the population faces starvation with
absolutely
no food in the silos of the Grain Marketing Board.
Latest official
figures estimate economic growth at minus 9% in 2002, while
independent
economists put the decline at minus 12%, taking the cumulative
decline since
1998 to over 30%.
By modern market economy standards, this is an economic
collapse. It is made
worse by the fact that the underlying causes of the
crisis remain:
widespread lawlessness, Zimbabwe's international isolation,
and inflation
forecast to hit 150% by year-end.
The inevitable
question is whether it is still possible for the government -
and the new, in
Mugabe's words "economic war cabinet on one side and.a
political war cabinet"
on the other - to reverse the situation? Could the
country begin to see a
change of course towards some kind of normalcy: where
fiscal policy reins in
government expenditure, the restoration of positive
real interest rates and
devaluation to levels that will restore
competitiveness and encourage
exporters? Is there a chance that inflation
will be seriously tackled and
reversed?
Economic turnaround does not come about on its own, especially
a recovery
required to put Zimbabwe back on its feet again. The country
cannot continue
to ignore the key requirements for economic and social
recovery.
Yet businesspersons and entrepreneurs continue to ignore
objective economic
laws of how modern economies are run.
The primary
evil in the Zimbabwe economy is the destruction of business
confidence and
private sector initiative. Miracles do happen, but for
Zimbabwe this implies
that the government, which has been solely responsible
for the abrogation of
the rule of law and the destruction of human life and
property, should start
on a clean slate by revamping the export and domestic
sectors to achieve
recovery.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch
Column
Economic infrastructure verging on
collapse